Portable terminal device and communications device system wherein the device is used

ABSTRACT

A portable terminal device comprises an antenna for receiving radio waves from a base station, an incoming call alarm for notifying the user of the reception of radio waves, a control circuit provided between the antenna and the alarm for activating the alarm and a memory. The memory is capable of storing therein a predetermined incoming call rejecting condition or incoming call notifying condition via the control circuit. The control circuit includes comparison means for detecting whether one of information as to the current time and date, information as to the self-location of the device and information as to the caller or the combination of these items of information is in match with the incoming call rejecting condition or incoming call notifying condition stored in the memory. The control circuit has the function of changing over to predetermined incoming call rejecting means or incoming call notifying means when a match is obtained.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to portable terminal devices, such ascellular phones or PDAs, having a location detecting function with useof GPS, and communications device systems wherein the portable terminaldevice is used.

BACKGROUND ART

A portable telephone or cellular phone will be described below as anexample of portable terminal device. FIG. 4 is a perspective viewshowing the appearance of a conventional cellular phone, and FIG. 5 is ablock diagram of the interior thereof. The phone has a cabinet 1comprising two cabinet half segments 10, 10 a which are connectedtogether by a hinge 11. The cabinet half segment 10 is provided with anantenna 6, microphone for capturing voice and a plurality of manualbuttons 20, 20. The other cabinet half segment 10 a is provided with adisplay 5 which is an LCD and a speaker 90 for reproducing the voice ofthe other party.

With reference to FIG. 5, a signal from a base station 7 is received bya receiver 61 via the antenna 6 and a duplexer 60 and sent to a controlcircuit 3 having a timer function. The duplexer 60 is a device whichuses the same antenna for two-way transmission and which handlestransmitted signals and received signals using the single antenna 6.

The control circuit 3 has connected thereto an incoming call alarm 50comprising a ringer and vibrator for notifying the user of incomingcalls, a memory 4 having stored therein an operating program, melody tobe produced upon receiving an incoming call, etc., the display 5 whichis an LCD for showing the state of communication, a manipulator 2including the manual buttons 20, 20, the microphone 9 and the speaker90.

The incoming call alarm 50 notifies the user of an incoming callreceived. The voice of the other party is emitted by the speaker 90,while the voice of the user is captured by the microphone and sent froma transmitter 62 to the antenna 6 via the duplexer 60. At this time, thedisplay 5 shows the state of communication, etc.

Cellular phones have been proposed in recent years which are adapted todetermine the location of the phone itself using GPS, i.e., GlobalPositioning System (see, for example, the publications of JP-A No.2000-241964 and JP-A No. 1999-64482). The principle of GPS will bedescribed briefly with reference to FIG. 6.

As shown in FIG. 6, the GPS antenna 8 of a cellular phone receivessignals, termed C/A cord, from four artificial satellites V1, V2, V3, V4whose positions are known relative to the earth. The C/A cord istransmitted also from the cellular phone. The time difference betweenthe C/A cord transmitted from the phone and the C/A cord received fromeach artificial satellite is measured, and the measurement is multipliedby the velocity of propagation of radio waves to obtain the distancefrom the satellite to the GPS antenna 8. The position and height of theGPS antenna 8 can be determined by solving an equation representing asphere (because the earth is a sphere) using the positions of thesatellites and the distances from the satellites to the GPS antenna 8.

However, the cellular phone described has the following problems.

With an increase in the number of subscribers of cellular phones,problems arise as to how to use the phone in public places.

Cellular phones should not be used, for example, in hospitals since theradio waves of cellular phones are likely to cause a malfunction ofmedical electronic devices. Incoming call sound alarms cause a publicnuisance if released in libraries or museums which must be kept quiet.In such cases, forcible restrictions on the use of cellular phones aredesirable, but the matter is presently left to the discretion of theuser. Especially as to incoming calls, if the subscriber is at alocation accessible by incoming radio waves, it is impossible to shutoff the incoming call unless the subscriber turns off the power source.It is nevertheless troublesome for the user to turn on or off the powersource every time the user moves from one place to another.

In view of the fact that cellular phones adapted to detect their ownlocation as described above are placed into wide use, the presentapplicant has conceived the idea of specifying an area where no phonecalls should be made and causing the phone to automatically rejectincoming calls when the location of the phone as detected by GPS or thelike is within the specified area. The inventor has also conceived theidea of specifying not only areas but also callers and time as toincoming calls and rejecting the incoming call from the specified personin the specified period of time.

An object of the present invention is to automatically reject incomingcalls to a cellular phone as positioned in a specified location at aspecified time, and incoming calls from a specified subscriber so as toeliminate the cumbersome procedure of turning on or off the powersource.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a portable terminal device comprising anantenna 6 for receiving radio waves from a base station 7, an incomingcall alarm 50 for notifying the user of the reception of radio waves, acontrol circuit 3 provided between the antenna 6 and the alarm 50 foractivating the alarm 50 and a memory 4. The memory 4 is capable ofstoring therein a predetermined incoming call rejecting condition orincoming call notifying condition via the control circuit 3.

The control circuit 3 includes comparison means for detecting whetherone of information as to the current time and date, information as tothe self-location of the device and information as to the caller, or thecombination of these items of information is in match with the incomingcall rejecting condition or incoming call notifying condition stored inthe memory 4.

The control circuit 3 has the function of changing over to predeterminedincoming call rejecting means or incoming call notifying means when amatch is obtained.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the interior of a cellular phone embodyingthe invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an incoming call rejecting operation ofthe embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing an outgoing call rejecting operation;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a conventionalcellular phone;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the interior of the conventional cellularphone; and

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the principle of GPS.

BEST MODE OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the invention will be described below in detail.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the interior of a cellular phone embodyingthe invention. The phone has generally the same appearance and shape asthe conventional cellular phone shown in FIG. 4. The present embodimentis characterized in that incoming calls can be rejected automatically,for example, when the location of the phone itself fulfillspredetermined conditions.

With reference to FIG. 1, a signal from a base station 7 is received bya receiver 61 via an antenna 6 and a duplexer 60 and sent to a signalprocessing circuit 63, which performs voice signal processing, detectsthe location of the cellular phone itself (self-location) and feeds theresults to a control circuit 3. While the location of the phone can bedetermined based on information as to the region of the particular basestation accessible to the radio waves of the cellular phone, thelocation can be determined with high accuracy from the combination ofthis information and the information from GPS to be described below.

The control circuit 3 has a timer function and has connected thereto anincoming call alarm 50, memory 4, display 5, manipulator 2, microphone 9and speaker 90 like the conventional one. The current time is indicatedby the control circuit 3 on the display 5.

The cellular phone also has a GPS antenna 8, and the signals fromartificial satellites are received by a GPS receiver 80 via the GPSantenna 8 and then fed to a GPS signal processing circuit 81 connectedto the control circuit 3. The circuit 81 converts the high-frequencysignal received from the satellite to a low-frequency signal and detectsthe location of the cellular phone itself, i.e., the self-location.

Since the region to be covered by one base station 7 is wide, it isdifficult to accurately determine the location of the cellular phonefrom the information received from the based station 7 only. It isimpossible to capture radio waves indoors or in the shadows ofbuildings. Accordingly, the self-location is accurately detected fromthe combination of the information from the base station 7 and thesignals from the artificial satellites.

The base station 7 is linled to a map server 71 via a network 70 ofcellular phones. When requested from a cellular phone, a map data (imagedata) is read from the map server 71 by the station 7 and transmitted tothe cellular phone. The network 70 may be linked to the map server 71 byway of a plurality of gateways for converting communications protocols.JP-A No. 2001-5381 discloses such a mapping system.

[Setting of Incoming Call Rejection]

When the location of the cellular phone fulfills the specifiedconditions, the user manipulates the phone to set the phone forautomatic rejection of incoming calls. Incoming call rejection isselected by manipulating manual buttons 20 or a menu on the display 5,and the control circuit 3 sets a flag for the rejection and stores theflag in the memory 4.

The user then determines an area where incoming calls are to berejected. Stated more specifically, the map server 71 is accessed viathe base station 7 to download map data including the area of incomingcall rejection to the cellular phone. After downloading, a cursor ismoved on the display 5 using manual buttons 20 to specify the area forthe rejection of incoming calls. The specified area is stored in thememory 4.

After the area setting, the time and date, or a period of time for therejection of incoming calls are input by manipulating manual buttons 20or a menu on the display 5, and the time and date, or the period of timeis stored in the memory 4. Information as to the subscriber whoseincoming calls are to be rejected, e.g., the caller's telephone number,is input by using manual buttons 20, and the caller's information isstored in the memory 4. Incidentally, an unnecessary item among thetime, date, and caller's information need not be input, while such datacan be input in a desired order. Furthermore, the decision for theautomatic rejection of incoming calls may be input after setting thetime and date, or the period time, and the caller's information.

[Incoming Call Rejecting Operation]

An operation of this embodiment for incoming call rejection will bedescribed below with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 2.

The receiver 61 receives an incoming call request signal from the basestation 7 via the antenna 6. The control circuit 3 checks the memory 4for the presence or absence of a flag, and if the self-location, etc.meet the conditions, an inquiry is made as to whether the phone is setfor automatic incoming call rejection (S1). When the answer is negative,permission is given for an incoming call (S6). If the inquiry isanswered in the affirmative, the GPS receiver 80 is operated to obtainlocation information from artificial satellites (S2). As previouslystated, the self-location is accurately determined from the combinationof location information from GPS and that from the base station 7, andthe control circuit 3 inquires whether the self-location is included inthe area set in the memory 4 (S3). When the answer is affirmative, theincoming call is rejected (S7), whereas when the answer is negative, aninquiry is made as to whether the current time and date correspond tothose stored in the memory 4, or as to whether the current time isincluded in the time period stored in the memory 4 (S4).

When the answer is affirmative, an incoming call rejection is made (S7).If otherwise, information as to the caller, i.e., the telephone numberof the caller, is obtained from the incoming call request signal, and aninquiry is made as to whether the information corresponds to that storedin the memory 4 (S5). When the answer is affirmative, an incoming callrejection is made (S7). When the answer is negative, the incoming callis permitted (S6) since no conditions indicate that an incomingrejection is to be made.

Thus, when the user has stored the conditions for incoming callrejection in the memory 4, an incoming call rejection is madeautomatically, that is, communication is blocked, in the case where theself-location, etc. correspond to the conditions. This eliminates theprocedure for turning off or on the power source every time the incomingcall rejecting conditions are met.

Although the area, the time and date, or time period for incoming callrejection, and information as to the caller are mentioned as examples ofconditions for incoming call rejection, these items of data may be usedin combination as the incoming call rejection conditions. For example,data can be input to the memory 4 so that the calls from a specifiedsubscriber are rejected during the specified period of time.Furthermore, the step S3 to step S5 can be changed suitably in order.

In place of incoming call rejecting conditions, incoming call notifyingconditions may be set in the memory 4 for the incoming call alarm 50 (aringer and vibrator, or light for indicating an incoming call aspreviously stated) to notify the user of an incoming call when theself-location, etc. are found in match with the conditions for thenotification of incoming calls.

[Outgoing Call Rejecting Operation]

As an exemplary application of the foregoing, it appears possible toreject also outgoing calls based on the information as to theself-location obtained from the base station 7 and GPS satellites.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing an outgoing call rejecting operation.Upon the user energizing the cellular phone for transmission, thecontrol circuit 3 inquires whether the phone is set for automaticoutgoing call rejection (S10) if the self-location, etc. meet theconditions. If the answer is negative, permission is given for anoutgoing call (S13). When the answer is affirmative, the GPS receiver 81is operated to obtain location information from artificial satellites(S11). The control circuit 3 inquires whether the self-location isincluded in the area set in the memory 4 (S12). When the answer isaffirmative, an outgoing call is rejected (S14), whereas when the answeris negative, permission is given for an outgoing call (S13).

Unlike incoming calls, the time shown on the display 5 indicates to theuser whether an outgoing call is to be made or not. It is also unlikelythat the user himself or herself inputs data as to the caller.Accordingly, time or information as to the caller is not considered asconditions for outgoing call rejection.

On the other hand, it appears likely that the user will inadvertentlyenter an area where no outgoing calls are to be made while conducting acommunication on the cellular phone. In view of such a situation,outgoing calls are rejected based on the self-location obtained from thebase station 7 and GPS satellites.

Although the foregoing embodiment has been described with reference tocellular phones as portable terminal devices, such examples are notlimitative; the present embodiment is usable also for PDA (PersonalDigital Assistant).

Further like gpsOne (trademark), a server linked to the network 70 (seeFIG. 1) may determine locations by providing a GPS antenna for the basestation 7 and capturing radio waves from artificial satellites. Thisobviates the need for the cellular phone to determine the position fromGPS signals and also serves to shorten the time for capturing radiowaves from artificial satellites.

Although an incoming call is automatically rejected when theself-location, etc. correspond to the incoming call rejecting conditionsaccording to the foregoing embodiment, the cellular phone may be set fora discretion mode (mode wherein the incoming call alarm sound is muted)only when the self-location, etc. correspond to the incoming callrejecting conditions.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The memory 4 is capable of storing therein at least one of apredetermined self-location condition, information as to time and dateand information as to the caller which are incoming call rejectingconditions. The control circuit 3 detects whether one of information asto the current time and date, and self-location information and callerinformation which are obtained from an incoming call request signalreceived by the antenna 6, or the combination of these items ofinformation is in match with the incoming call rejecting conditionstored in the memory 4. When a match is obtained, the control circuit 3rejects the incoming call without activating the incoming call alarm 50.

Stated more specifically, an area as of a hospital wherein it is desirednot to sound the incoming call alarm is stored in the memory 4 as aself-location condition. If the user carrying the portable terminaldevice is positioned within the area, the control circuit 3 determinesthe location of the device from the signal received by the antenna 6 andautomatically rejects incoming calls. This eliminates the troublesomeprocedure of turning off or on the power source every time the usermoves into or out of the area. The same is true of the case wherein thetime and date when the user does not desire to cause the terminal deviceto sound the alarm, or the telephone number of a caller which is callerinformation is input to the memory 4.

In the case where the memory 4 has stored therein an incoming callnotifying condition, the control circuit 3 detects whether one ofinformation as to the current time and date, self-location informationand caller information, or combination of these items of information isin match with the incoming call notifying condition in the memory 4.When a match is found, the control circuit 3 activates the incoming callalarm 50.

1. A portable terminal device comprising an antenna for receiving radiowaves from a base station, an incoming call alarm for notifying the userof the reception of radio waves, a control circuit provided between theantenna and the alarm for activating the alarm and a memory, theportable terminal device being characterized in that: the memory iscapable of storing therein a predetermined incoming call rejectingcondition or incoming call notifying condition via the control circuit,the control circuit having the function of operating to obtain locationinformation when it receives an incoming call request signal, thecontrol circuit including comparison means for detecting whetherinformation as to the self-location of the device is in match with theincoming call rejecting condition or incoming call notifying conditionstored in the memory, the control circuit having the function ofchanging over to predetermined incoming call rejecting means or incomingcall notifying means when a match is obtained.
 2. A portable terminaldevice according to claim 1 wherein the incoming call rejectingcondition and the incoming call notifying condition are each at leastone of the self-location condition, time information and callerinformation.
 3. A portable terminal device according to claim 1 or 2wherein the control circuit has connected thereto a GPS receiver forreceiving radio waves transmitted from GPS satellites and obtains theself-location information from the GPS receiver.
 4. A portable terminaldevice according to claim 1 wherein the base station is linked to a mapsewer having stored therein map information, and a location informationmap obtained from the map sewer is used for setting the self locationcondition to be stored in the memory.
 5. A portable terminal deviceaccording to claim 3 wherein the control circuit detects whether theself location information received by the antenna or the GPS receiver isin match with the self location condition stored in the memory andrejects transmission of an outgoing call when a match is obtained.
 6. Acommunications device system comprising: a base station, and a portableterminal device, the portable terminal device comprising: an antenna forreceiving radio waves from the base station, an incoming call alarm fornotifying the user of the reception of radio waves, a control circuitprovided between the antenna and the alarm for activating the alarm anda memory, the memory being capable of storing therein a predeterminedincoming call rejecting condition or incoming call notifying conditionvia the control circuit, the control circuit having the function ofoperating to obtain location information when it receives an incomingcall request signal, the control circuit including comparison means fordetecting whether-one-of information as to the self-location of thedevice is in match with the incoming call rejecting condition orincoming call notifying condition stored in the memory, the controlcircuit having the function of changing over to predetermined incomingcall rejecting means or incoming call notifying means when a match isobtained.
 7. A portable terminal device comprising an antenna forreceiving radio waves from a base station, an incoming call alarm fornotifying the user of the reception of radio waves, a control circuitprovided between the antenna and the alarm for activating the alarm anda memory, the portable terminal device being characterized in that: thememory is capable of storing therein a predetermined incoming callrejecting condition or incoming call notifying condition via the controlcircuit, the control circuit including comparison means for detectingwhether information as to the current time and date, information as tothe self-location of the device and information as to the caller is inmatch with the incoming call rejecting condition or incoming callnotifying condition stored in the memory, the control circuit having thefunction of changing over to predetermined incoming call rejecting meansor incoming call notifying means when a match is obtained.